Be like Mayor Mamdani, Hong Kong!!!
Earlier this week, I sent a registered letter to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong- John KS Lee. In case you were wondering or concerned, there was nothing Dylanesque in it and with no obscure observations of life and love based on the Eraserheaded Twin Peaks thinking of David Lynch.
The letter was primarily to thank Mr Lee for ensuring that the city remains relatively safe, and also saying that Hong Kong desperately needs to upgrade its standards of practically everything in order for different products to have international consumer appeal.
Maybe even before tackling the elephant in the room, it’s about INSPIRING Hong Kong people like the 34 year old Mayor of New York City has done- and Zohran Mamdani has done this almost overnight, and not that differently to what a brilliant Director of Creative Services in an advertising agency would have done.
This type of of intuitive driven Director of Creative Services is very much needed in a Hong Kong that’s looking tired and old, and a one trick pony. And no, I’m not campaigning for the position. Been there, got the cheeseburger deluxe.
I also mentioned in my letter to Mr Lee that almost three decades ago, government mouthpiece Duncan Pescod promised Hong Kong there would be a “global search” to find the “right person” to run what was then known as CreateHK- supposedly a creative hub for local talent though I personally don’t subscribe to the idea that creativity can be taught or learned. You either have it or you don’t.
For over two decades, in charge of the government funded CreateHK was Jerry Liu, pictured below with the former lady Hong Kong Chief Executive, who I believe did something or another on an executive level with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.
Having been at a few of his presentations, Jerry seemed a pleasant enough guy who wasn’t exactly Mr Charisma or Mr Excitement and hardly made CreateHK appear to be something Hong Kong needed. It was not exactly inspiring. Moving right along…
In 2023, CreateHK came under the management of the Hong Kong Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and was renamed- er- Commissioner for Cultural and Creative Industries.
I don’t get any of this…None of this actually SCREAMS out CREATIVITY. It sounds awfully like government speak and changing for the sake of change, but becoming nothing.
The main point I was making is that before wasting more money trying to attract tourists for the simple reason that we don’t have anything new for them, we should be trying to convince foreign INVESTORS and ENTREPRENEURS that Hong Kong has the potential to be something much more than it is today.
We need those “shake your money makers” from the Middle East, Eastern Europe and China and wherever else there’s investment seed money.
We need to CONVINCE them that Hong Kong has what they need so they can make this city a base with opportunities for their businesses
This gives us the financial investors and entrepreneurs to help Hong Kong once again be seen as Asia’s World City by enhancing what’s already here and not start with more laborious “mega projects”. Sometimes, small is beautiful.
”Mega projects” are usually going to take decades to develop, let alone build by which time the world would have changed completely and quite a few of us might not even be here anymore.
To say that the past few attempts to attract tourism have been half-baked and showed a lack of experience about marketing and zero idea about creativity would be an understatement.
How many in Hong Kong know whether these campaigns were produced for the aging local population or overseas visitors? How many even care? How many even know what to care about?
Who from overseas will fly half way around the world to see sixty and seventy year old Canto Pop artists performing their hits?
The reason that an international artist like Taylor Swift performed SIX concerts in Singapore during her Eras Tour last year was because of easy access for her fans from the rest of the region and the popularity of her music in a city where Western pop is heavily promoted.
Not so in Hong Kong. Nothing has changed in the city since the Eighties. This was when local and global music companies and the entertainment media banded together to focus on promoting recordings and music videos and investing in the multi million dollar concert business featuring artists singing in Cantonese.
Nothing wrong with this because it’s business, but…
If a twenty year old music fan in the Eighties, how old would you be today?
Do the maths and then think how and why the music product must change and what’s going to change it and introduce this to a new audience unless Hong Kong audiences only want to keep seeing Air Supply gasping for oxygen and going on until whenever.
Other than experience, understanding structure and providing and improving strategic ways forward with the future in mind, what else does a good Director of Creative Services bring to the table?
How long is a ball of string? But firstly, is there anyone in Hong Kong with the charisma, people skills, chutzpah and vision to attract the level of talent needed?
What’s needed is the right team- a trusted team that has the ability to go the distance- and approved and probably picked by the Director of Creative Services.
This team must be an experienced and diverse talent pool of individuals and not some whirlpool who don’t get out much and whose universe is Hong Kong.
This team must comprise individuals with strategic thinking and the experience and knowledge of the tech sector, owning strong Rolodexes and with the necessary presentation skills to sell Hong Kong to overseas investors- but not to another fake sheik on an eight humped camel.
The most important role of any Director of Creative Services is to oversee and help give Hong Kong inspiration and a makeover that provides it with a unique brand personality able to deliver even one golden goose. There have been enough of obscenely well paid stuffed turkeys.
When with EMI Music and first approached by the Hong Kong Jockey Club about what became the ultra popular and successful Happy Wednesday brand, one idea was to have this work closely connected with the Hong Kong Tourism Board and TripAdvisor. But then came the Covid and lockdown years and civil unrest and after all that negativity, I really didn’t feel like putting on a “happy” face and being another corporate brick in the wall.
It’s not too late to revisit this plan, but how to find the talent needed and make the pieces fit and ensure the tail doesn’t wag the dog is something else altogether.
For my money, the mainstream USP of the HKJC has always been the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities. The question is what is its strategy for moving things forward in the city? Does it even have one? It appears to be extremely quiet these days.
Tai Kwun, part of the HKJC Charities division is nothing like what was promised when the well credentialed Euan Upston was brought to Hong Kong from Sydney to run the heritage centre.
He lasted less than two years and left early on garden leave apparently because of various restrictions put on him and how his talents would be used.
Has anyone ever been truly responsible for marketing the venue or have they been aimlessly wandering around it like Australian jockey Hugh Bowman did when chosen to endorse the venue in a commercial?
Who at the HKJC came up with this bolt of nutmeg creative lightning?
Like Hugh, Hong Kong also appears to be aimlessly wandering.
There seems to be no energy and zero strategy to re-activate and re-energise the one time entrepreneurial spirit of the city. And even if the spirit is willing, one always wonders if the right people are in place to make any of this happen? And if not, how does one attract them to Hong Kong?
Last year, I introduced Simon Fuller, my longtime friend and global entertainment icon to the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Much was discussed over our first lunch together- maybe too much for me to absorb and I felt that I was losing focus. I didn’t feel comfortable with how things seemed to be happening “on the fly” and bowed out of getting involved. In the end nothing much happened and, sometimes, these are blessings.
Having said this, with something to excite him and his emotional attachment to Hong Kong, I definitely know that Simon and his experience and Rolodex and team at X1X Entertainment will be back to help put Hongy Dumpty together again.
For Hong Kong to be seen as someplace exciting again and with more than just “potential”, personally speaking, I would like to see Jensen Huang, Founder of NVIDIA, here and listen to him tell us whatever he might wish to share.
To this Wish List, I would add Barack and Michelle Obama, maybe the Musky man, former prime minister of Finland and the very much underrated Sanna Marin, and very probably Jessie Buckley for her infectious joy and honesty.
In opening and closing, Hong Kong should host a citywide Getting To Know Us Party.
Maybe this coming together of Hong Kong Belongers is our best team of marketers?
The world should get to know that it’s our differences that make us special and which has led us on some incredible life journeys.
It’s time for US to tell the world about OUR Hong Kong stories. No one can tell them better. Certainly not an advertising agency given a client brief.
By so doing, we might finally have our most compelling and inspiring and memorable advertising campaign that sells Hong Kong with heart and soul, nostalgia and love.
And let me invite Zohran Mamdani to our party. He’s probably too busy to make it, but you never know.
Yes, he’s a Muslim, but so what? He’s a socialist. So?
I’m known as an “ethnic minority” in Hong Kong because I was born in Ceylon. So? It’s not stopped me from being me.
We are Hong Kong and the world is invited to our home to meet and break bread with us.
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